Able to breathe again, she peered around with stinging, watering eyes to find the ghosts and living around her had all frozen in eerie curiosity, watching her spectacle.
Get up,she demanded of herself. Only the ghosts knew it was her, the queen, in the undead body. But now was no time to show the living there was any weakness.
Getup.
It was a struggle to get back to her feet, but she did it. What had just happened? Had observing the one moment of tender affection somehow faltered her resolve?
Impossible. She was a rock.
She shook her head violently and left the ghost’s body, returning again to the silence of the ship in the dock. Her own body felt foreign as she stepped out onto the deck, but the familiar Ixian air brought her back. The smell of new death was farther inland. What she took in now was the low orange glow of the city on fire, the salty sea air, the heady scent of blooming wisteria, and the quiet of the lapping seawater in the bay behind her.
Quiet?
She looked to the Rock and registered that the turrets had stopped. Nova must have gained control of them. Good of her not to abandon the mission.
Only a couple of hours until sunrise. A well-timed success. It was time to take her throne back.
She took up her father’s spear, finding it curiously light in her divine hands. Summoning a small cadre of ghosts, she disappeared into the trees and up the Rock.
• NOVA •
Nova frowned as one of her half staffs crushed a guard’s skull with an audible crunch and he fell to the floor in a heap. A small spray of blood arced along the wall and the side of her face.
She’d separated from Cutter a while ago and left the Gold Guard to secure the roof. It was too great a risk to have them join the fight and ultimately be confused with her targets.
She was now wandering the residential wing in search of Dahlia or the Bear Queen or someone, anyone, to make her feel like she was accomplishing something besides slaughtering people. There was no sign of Yemaya yet, either, though the brief trip she’d made to the palace gates showed the city on fire. With mere hours until daylight, who knew if there would be anyone in the capital left to rule. At least reinforcements from the base hadn’t shown up yet. That meant they were winning.
In the distance, sounds of fighting still bled through the halls. She breached Yemaya’s bedroom and found no one of consequence inside. The walls had been stripped of their art. Nova’s gaze lingered on the giant square bed, its linens folded and stacked with the tall window drapes as if this were little more than a storeroom for the laundry staff. On any given night, this had been her bed, too.
“What am I doing?” she whispered. Her shoulders dropped, weighed down by either sadness or nostalgia or muscle fatigue by now. She closed the door quietly, the way she always had when she snuck away from Yemi to begin her daily duties. And then the blood dripping from her staff and pooling at her feet caught her eye. She flung it clean against the door and collected herself, wiping her face on her arm before opening the door to her own room across the hall.
A war cry in the dark, and then “Orie, no!”
Nova backed behind the door just in time for a vase to come crashing down where her head had been. She readied her staff and threw the door open, hoping to hit whoever was behind it. Her heart liftedwhen she saw Orie’s round, deeply apologetic face. Enna stood with a pistol on the far side of the bed in the middle of the room.
“Nova!” Orie cried and flung her arms around her. Nova closed the door behind her and hugged her back.
“You’re both alright,” she sighed in relief.
“In a word.” Enna winced.
“Sit, sit,” Nova commanded. Enna gingerly lowered herself to the floor on the other side of the bed and Nova made her own way over.
“Where is she? Is she back?” Orie whispered excitedly.
“Down in the city, but should be here soon. Cutter and I and some of the Gold Guard are just here clearing the way.” Nova checked Enna’s bandages for signs of distress. The girl was tough. There was no way she should have been out of the infirmary yet.
“It’s just you? I don’t understand. How are you doing this?” Enna asked.
“Thatis a story for lunch. Or at least a very, very late breakfast,” Nova deflected, getting to her feet. “Have either of you seen Dahlia? I find her, and this all wraps up a lot quicker.”
They both shook their heads.
Nova was disappointed. Maybe the Drakes knew more than she thought about the tunnels beneath the palace.
“The Bear Queen’s statue, then?”
“The crypt,” said Orie. “One of the masons’ storerooms. I don’t think Dahlia could bring herself to drop it off the cliff.”
